Become an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist

What is the Anxiety UK Approved Therapist scheme?

How do I become an AUK Approved Therapist?

Registration with ‘governing bodies’

How does the referrals process work?

What is the Anxiety UK Approved Therapist scheme?

As a qualified therapist, or someone working towards accreditation or in training, Anxiety UK can offer you the opportunity to be part of a scheme where you will gain invaluable experience of working with clients presenting with a range of anxiety disorders from conditions such as agoraphobia, social phobia, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD) through to specific phobias such as needle phobia, spider phobia etc.

Anxiety UK holds the prestigious APPTS accreditation, a programme that works with psychological therapies services in the UK to assure and improve their quality. APPTS is a joint venture between the Royal College of Psychiatrists and The British Psychological Society.

We would particularly welcome applications currently for CBT therapists in London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Newcastle and the East of England.

The therapists we work with are:

Cognitive behavioural therapists (CBT): Applicants must hold a qualification from a course that has been accredited /is in the process of being accredited by the British Association for Behavioural & Cognitive Psychotherapies (BABCP) and/or hold individual accreditation with the BABCP.

Alternatively if you have a CBT qualification (Diploma or above) from a non-BABCP accredited course, you must be working towards securing BABCP accreditation within 12 months of being accepted as an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist.

Counsellors: Applicants must hold a Diploma in Counselling from a course that has been accredited/is in the process of being accredited by either the British Association for Counselling & Psychotherapy (BACP), the British Psychological Society (BPS) or the National Counselling Society (NCS) and/or hold individual registration/accreditation with the BACP or NCS.

If you hold a Counselling diploma from a non-BACP, NCS or BPS accredited course, you must be working towards securing BACP, NCS or BPS accreditation within 12 months of being accepted as an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist.

Clinical hypnotherapists: Applicants must hold a Diploma in Clinical Hypnotherapy and be registered with one of the following professional bodies: The Complementary and Natural Healthcare Council, The British Society of Clinical Hypnosis, the General Hypnotherapy Register, National Council for Hypnotherapy,  UK Council for Psychotherapy and The Hypnotherapy Society.

Clinical psychologists: Applicants must hold a BPS approved Doctorate in Clinical Psychology and be registered with the HCPC with experience of delivering CBT based therapy. Membership and /or individual accreditation with the BABCP is welcomed.

All Anxiety UK Approved Therapists must also submit evidence of the following –

• Produce copies of Diploma level qualifications as a minimum (or be studying towards one).
• Proof of professional indemnity insurance annually.
• Proof of professional body membership annually.
• Sign up to a minimum of ten hours continuing professional development (CPD) per year. This varies between bodies.
• Have a named clinical supervisor in place. In addition to this, Anxiety UK expects all therapists registered with them to have a valid DBS certificate (enhanced version), which is less than three years old and renewed every three years.

“I enjoy working for AUK. It’s good you do the checks you do to make sure I am competent. This is very important, to ensure that clients get a good service, I also think the FAST service is a good idea too.”

“Anxiety UK is a charity that has continually provided unequivocal support for both clients and therapist suffering from anxiety. As a professional therapist working for Anxiety UK, I can say that I have benefited myself from having brilliant use of technological assets to assist me with my work, approachable staff, frequent and meaningful communication that, in my mind, places the charity as one of the best around.”

Benefits of being an Anxiety UK Approved Therapist – what’s in it for you!

How do I become an AUK Approved Therapist?

Registration with ‘governing bodies’

How does the referrals process work?

How do I become an AUK Approved Therapist?

Once you have completed the online application form via our website, paid the £25 processing fee (non-refundable) and submit details of two referees, we will then arrange a telephone interview with you before proceeding to the next stage.

Subject to a satisfactory interview outcome, Anxiety UK will source references from your named referees (this normally takes 2-3 weeks). While we are waiting for the references you will be asked to undertake three short online training modules which will be emailed to you during the process either before or after your initial interview.

Once we have received satisfactory references, all pre-requisite training has been completed and all relevant paperwork has been submitted to Anxiety UK, subject to a satisfactory DBS check we will then add you to our database of Anxiety UK Approved Therapists ready to receive referrals.

Registration with ‘governing bodies’

Anxiety UK currently accepts applications from the following registered governing bodies:

British Association for Counsellors and Psychotherapists (BACP)

British Association for Behavioural and Cognitive Psychotherapists (BABCP)

Complimentary and Natural Healthcare Council (CNHC)

General Hypnotherapy Register (GHR)

British Society for Clinical Hypnotherapists (BSCH)

National Council for Hypnotherapists (NCH)

United Kingdom Council for Psychotherapy (UKCP)

The National Hypnotherapy Society (HS)

National Counselling Society (NCS)

Health & Care Professions Council (HCPC)

The Association for Professional Hypnosis and Psychotherapy (APHP)

National Register of Hypnotherapists & Psychotherapists (NRHP)

Governing bodies often have an ethical framework that they expect members to adhere to when practicing their discipline. Membership is a way of clients ascertaining that therapists have been checked and have met certain quality standards in their practice. They also offer therapists the opportunity to become accredited, which is a mark of the knowledge and experience they have developed over time.

Common criteria for all bodies accepted by Anxiety UK is that they expect practitioners to have met the following criteria:

• Produce copies of Diploma level qualifications as a minimum (or be studying towards one).
• Proof of professional indemnity insurance annually.
• Proof of professional body membership annually.
• Sign up to a minimum of ten hours continuing professional development (CPD) per year. This varies between bodies.
• Have a named clinical supervisor in place. In addition to this, Anxiety UK expects all therapists registered with them to have a valid DBS certificate (enhanced version), which is less than three years old and renewed every three years.

How does the referrals process work?

Anxiety UK provides therapeutic support through three different routes:

Member referrals:

Members of Anxiety UK can apply for our discounted rated therapy services at a cost based on their household income. AUK will conduct the necessary checks and allocate to a therapist based on modality and location preferences.

Tier prices are as follows:

Once this tier is allocated the client will pay three payments (first, second and last sessions for counselling or CBT) or two payments (the first and last session for hypnotherapy) as a donation to Anxiety UK. This is retained by the charity. For qualified therapists, all other sessions are paid through you at the allocated rate.

FAST referrals

AUK also offers an opt-in scheme for AUK Approved Therapists to allow non-members to access a therapist consultation within 24hrs. The therapist agrees to this quick turn around and following this initial consultation the client continues in a private agreement with the therapist at £50 for which Anxiety UK holds no liability.

Partnership referrals

Anxiety UK also provides support for a number of partnerships which are for a set allocated number of sessions and are all paid to the therapist at a fixed rate.

How many referrals will I get?

Anxiety UK’s therapy services work on an on-demand basis. As such we cannot guarantee any number of referrals or forecast the demand in any given area, however we operate a very flexible system should you reach capacity or be unable to take referrals for personal reasons.

For more information

If you have any specific questions please don’t hesitate to contact us. Please telephone 0161 226 7727 or email services@anxietyuk.org.uk

Please do bear in mind, though, that we are unable to guarantee any degree of regular referrals or to forecast the volume of them at any given time.